6.

087 Lecture 2 January 12, 2010

Review

Variables and data types

Operators

Epilogue

Review: C Programming language

C is a fast, small,general-purpose,platform independent

programming language.
C is used for systems programming (e.g., compilers and

interpreters, operating systems, database systems, microcontrollers etc.)

C is static (compiled), typed, structured and imperative. "C is quirky, awed, and an enormous success."Ritchie

Review: Basics

Variable declarations: int i ; oat f ; Intialization: char c=A; int x=y=10; Operators: +,,,/,% Expressions: int x,y,z; x=y2+z3; Function: int factorial ( int n); / function takes int , returns int /

6.087 Lecture 2 January 12, 2010

Review

Variables and data types

Operators

Epilogue

Denitions
Datatypes:
The datatype of an object in memory determines the set

of values it can have and what operations that can be performed on it.
C is a weakly typed language. It allows implicit conversions

as well as forced (potentially dangerous) casting. Operators:

Operators specify how an object can be manipulated

(e.g.,, numeric vs. string operations).

operators can be unary(e.g., -,++),binary (e.g.,

+,-,*,/),ternary (?:)

Denitions (contd.)
Expressions:
An expression in a programming language is a

combination of values, variables, operators, and functions Variables:

A variable is as named link/reference to a value stored in

the systems memory or an expression that can be evaluated. Consider: int x=0,y=0; y=x+2;.
x, y are variables y = x + 2 is an expression + is an operator.

Variable names
Naming rules:
Variable names can contain letters,digits and _ Variable names should start with letters. Keywords (e.g., for,while etc.) cannot be used as variable

names
Variable names are case sensitive. int x; int X declares

two different variables. Pop quiz (correct/incorrect):

int money$owed; (incorrect: cannot contain $) int total_count (correct) int score2 (correct) int 2ndscore (incorrect: must start with a letter) int long (incorrect: cannot use keyword)
5

Data types and sizes

C has a small family of datatypes.

Numeric (int,oat,double) Character (char) User dened (struct,union)

Numeric data types

Depending on the precision and range required, you can use one of the following datatypes. signed unsigned short short int x; short y; unsigned short x;unsigned short int y; default int x; unsigned int x; long long x; unsigned long x; oat oat x; N/A double double x; N/A char char x; signed char x; unsigned char x;
The unsigned version has roughly double the range of its

signed counterparts.
Signed and unsigned characters differ only when used in

arithmetic expressions.
Titbit: Flickr changed from unsigned long (232 1) to string

two years ago.

7

Big endian vs. little endian

The individual sizes are machine/compiler dependent. However, the following is guaranteed: sizeof(char)<sizeof(short)<=sizeof(int)<=sizeof(long) and
sizeof(char)<sizeof(short)<=sizeof(oat)<=sizeof(double)

"NUXI" problem: For numeric data types that span multiple bytes, the order of arrangement of the individual bytes is important. Depending on the device architecture, we have "big endian" and "little endian" formats.

Big endian vs. little endian (cont.)

Big endian: the most signicant bits (MSBs) occupy the

lower address. This representation is used in the powerpc processor. Networks generally use big-endian order, and thus it is called network order. Little endian : the least signcant bits (LSBs) occupy the lower address. This representation is used on all x86 compatible processors.

Figure:

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_endian)

Constants

Constants are literal/xed values assigned to variables or used directly in expressions. Datatype example meaning int i =3; integer long l=3; long integer integer unsigned long ul= 3UL; unsigned long int i =0xA; hexadecimal int i =012; octal number oat pi=3.14159 oat oating point oat pi=3.141F oat double pi=3.1415926535897932384L double

10

Constants (contd.)

Datatype character string enumeration

example
A \x41 \0101 "hello world" "hello""world" enum BOOL {NO,YES} enum COLOR {R=1,G,B,Y=10}

meaning character specied in hex specied in octal string literal same as "hello world" NO=0,YES=1 G=2,B=3

11

Declarations

The general format for a declaration is type variable-name [=value] Examples:

char x; / uninitialized / char x=A; / intialized to A / char x=A,y=B; /multiple variables initialized / char x=y=Z;/multiple initializations /

12

Pop quiz II

int x=017;int y=12; / is x>y?/ short int s=0xFFFF12; /correct?/ char c=1;unsigned char uc=1; /correct?/ puts("hel"+"lo");puts("hel""lo");/which is correct?/ enum sz{S=0,L=3,XL}; /what is the value of XL?/ enum sz{S=0,L=3,XL}; /what is the value of XL?/

13

6.087 Lecture 2 January 12, 2010

Review

Variables and data types

Operators

Epilogue

14

Arithmetic operators

operator +

meaning addition

examples
x=3+2; /constants/ y+z; / variables / x+y+2; /both/ 32; /constants/

subtraction

int x=yz; /variables/ y2z; /both/ int x=32; /constants/

multiplication

int x=yz; / variables / xy2; / both/

14

Arithmetic operators (contd.)

operator /

meaning division modulus

examples
oat x=3/2; / produces x=1 (int /) / oat x=3.0/2 / produces x=1.5 (oat /) / int x=3.0/2; / produces x=1 (int conversion)/ int x=3%2; /produces x=1/ int y=7;int x=y%4; /produces 3/ int y=7;int x=y%10; /produces 7/

(remainder)

15

Relational Operators
Relational operators compare two operands to produce a boolean result. In C any non-zero value (1 by convention) is considered to be true and 0 is considered to be false. operator meaning examples > >= < <= greater than greater than or equal to lesser than lesser than or equal to
3>2; / evaluates to 1 / 2.99>3 /evaluates to 0 / 3>=3; /evaluates to 1 / 2.99>=3 /evaluates to 0 / 3<3; / evaluates to 0 / A<B/evaluates to 1/ 3<=3; /evaluates to 1 / 3.99<3 /evaluates to 0 /

16

Relational Operators

Testing equality is one of the most commonly used relational operator meaning examples operator. == != Gotchas:
Note that the "==" equality operator is different from the

equal to not equal to

3==3; /evaluates to 1 / A==a/evaluates to 0 / 3!=3; / evaluates to 0 / 2.99!=3 / evaluates to 1 /

"=", assignment operator.

Note that the "==" operator on oat variables is tricky

because of nite precision.

17

Logical operators
operator && || ! meaning AND OR NOT examples
((9/3)==3) && (23==6); /evaluates to 1 / ( A==a) && (3==3) /evaluates to 0 / 2==3 || A==A; /evaluates to 1 / 2.99>=3 || 0 / evaluates to 0 / !(3==3); / evaluates to 0 / !(2.99>=3) / evaluates to 1 /

Short circuit: The evaluation of an expression is discontinued if the value of a conditional expression can be determined early. Be careful of any side effects in the code. Examples:
(3==3) || (( c=getchar())==y). The second expression is not

evaluated.
(0) && ((x=x+1)>0) . The second expression is not evaluated.

18

Increment and decrement operators

Increment and decrement are common arithmetic operation. C provides two short cuts for the same. Postx
x++ is a short cut for x=x+1 x is a short cut for x=x1 y=x++ is a short cut for y=x;x=x+1. x is evaluated before it is

incremented.
y=x is a short cut for y=x;x=x1. x is evaluated before it is

decremented.

19

Increment and decrement operators

Prex:
++x is a short cut for x=x+1 x is a short cut for x=x1 y=++x is a short cut for x=x+1;y=x;. x is evaluate after it is

incremented.
y=x is a short cut for x=x1;y=x;. x is evaluate after it is

decremented.

20

Bitwise Operators
operator & | Notes:
AND is true only if both operands are true. OR is true if any operand is true. XOR is true if only one of the operand is true.
21

meaning AND OR XOR left shift right shift

examples
0x77 & 0x3; /evaluates to 0x3 / 0x77 & 0x0; /evaluates to 0 / 0x700 | 0x33; / evaluates to 0x733 / 0x070 | 0 / evaluates to 0x070 / 0x770 ^ 0x773; /evaluates to 0x3 / 0x33 ^ 0x33; /evaluates to 0 / 0x01<<4; /evaluates to 0x10 / 1<<2; /evaluates to 4 / 0x010>>4; /evaluates to 0x01 / 4>>1 /evaluates to 2 /

Assignment Operators
Another common expression type found while programming in C is of the type var = var (op) expr
x=x+1 x=x10 x=x/2

C provides compact assignment operators that can be used instead.

x+=1 /is the same as x=x+1/ x=1 /is the same as x=x1/ x=10 /is the same as x=x10 / x/=2 / is the same as x=x/2 x%=2 /is the same as x=x%2
22

Conditional Expression
A common pattern in C (and in most programming) languages is the following:
i f ( cond ) x=<expra > ; else x=<exprb > ;

C provides syntactic sugar to express the same using the ternary operator ?:
s i g n =x >0?1: 1; i f ( x >0) s i g n =1 else s i g n=1 i s o d d =x %2==1?1:0; i f ( x%2==1) i s o d d =1 else i s o d d =0

Notice how the ternary operator makes the code shorter and easier to understand (syntactic sugar).
23

6.087 Lecture 2 January 12, 2010

Review

Variables and data types

Operators

Epilogue

24

Type Conversions
When variables are promoted to higher precision, data is preserved. This is automatically done by the compiler for mixed data type expressions.
int i ; float f ; f = i +3.14159; / i i s promoted t o f l o a t , f =( f l o a t ) i +3.14159 /

Another conversion done automatically by the compiler is char int. This allows comparisons as well as manupilations of character variables.
i s u p p e r =( c>=A && c<=Z ) ? 1 : 0 ; / c and l i t e r a l c o n s t a n t s are c o n v e r te d t o i n t / i f ( ! isupper ) c=ca+A ; / s u b t r a c t i o n i s p o s s i b l e because o f i n t e g e r c o n v e r s i o n /

As a rule (with exceptions), the compiler promotes each term in an binary expression to the highest precision operand.
24

Precedence and Order of Evaluation

++,,(cast),sizeof have the highest priority *,/,% have higher priority than +, ==,!= have higher priority than &&,|| assignment operators have very low priority

Use () generously to avoid ambiguities or side effects associated with precendence of operators.
y=x3+2 /same as y=(x3)+2/ x!=0 && y==0 /same as (x!=0) && (y==0)/ d= c>=0&& c<=9/same as d=(c>=0) && (c<=9)/

25

MIT OpenCourseWare http://ocw.mit.edu

6.087 Practical Programming in C

IAP 2010

For information about citing these materials or our Terms of Use,visit: http://ocw.mit.edu/terms.